Portion Control

By Jonathan Tellier

Lesson Overview
This lesson will help patients understand the importance of accurately estimating how
much food they should eat. The patients at Patton will estimate portion sizes of pasta or
snack and compare this to the actual serving size recommended. To make this easier pre
packaged items would be easiest to use, but during this class we are cooking pasta so this
will likely be the item used.

Introduction
● Average portion sizes for Americans has doubled or tripled in the past 20
years. The reason for this is the culture of America has changed in
restaurants where food items are all supersized.
● A portion is the amount of food that you choose to eat for a meal or a snack.
● A serving is the measure of the amount of food or drink, such as one slice of
bread or 1 cup of milk.
● Many foods that are packaged as single portions actually have multiple
servings. The Nutrition Facts label on packaged foods located on the back of
cans and sides of boxes will tell you the number of servings in the container.
● The importance of people to understand that this obscurity in portion sizes is
causing us to think we can eat more of certain foods than our bodies truly
need and this can lead to being overweight or obese and an increase in risk
for chronic diseases.

Activity: What’s your portion size?

For this activity we will need the pasta and two plates for each person.

Everybody should wash their hands prior to handling food.

1. On one plate, ask the patient to put the amount of food they think one serving would be.

2. Next, have the patient measure out the amount of pasta that is roughly the size of
their fist. Keeping food portions smaller than the size of your fist is one of the
easiest ways to measure a serving size. According to the National Heart Lung
and Blood Institute.

3. Have the volunteer take out one serving size and put it on the other plate next to the plate
with the serving size he or she thought might be one serving.

4. Ask the patient to compare the two, and let them share their thoughts about it.

5. What happens if we are always eating portions that are more than one serving and
we start to think that a bigger portion of food is “normal?” Give the group time to
answer. If we eat portions on a regular basis that are larger than our body requires
we may gain excess weight or become unhealthy. Some examples of conditions that
 may develop from obesity include sleep apnea, GERD, hypertension, diabetes, and
cardiovascular disease.

6. Give a few examples of portion distortion:

● A single serving of pretzels is 10 pieces, however many people will eat

twice as many without realizing they’re eating a double portion.
● Many brand name cereals list a portion as ¾ or 1 cup. If you were to pour
out ¾ cup of cereal it would look rather small, especially if you use a
typical cereal bowl.

Understanding portion sizes is an important component to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Activity: Estimating Accurate Portions

For this activity we will need a print out of a nutrition facts label for ramen or another
prepackaged food item familiar to the patient.

1. What are some easy ways we can keep our portions to a single serving size?

● Prepackaged snack can be poured out on to a plate so the correct

serving size can be measured.

● Pay attention to the nutrition facts labels on foods.

2. Review the importance of reading the nutrition food label and the
importance of understanding portion size of food they are eating.

Serving sizes are listed on the labels of most foods, so use the Nutrition Facts label to decide
the amount that is right for you. For foods that don’t have a label, common items can be your
guide to help you decide the right portion.

● Deck of cards = 3 ounce serving of meat/protein

● Tennis ball = serving of fruit or 1/2 cup ice cream
● Fist = 1 cup serving vegetables and grains
● Tip of thumb = dressings, butter or cream cheese
● 4 dice = 1 ounce of cheese

Conclusion
Have patients write down or verbalize what they believe is the most surprising thing they
learned about portion sizes. If written allow them to bring this with them to their unit. If
verbalized have them discuss this with peers in the class.